Dear 001,
A lot of noise has been made about the Howard Stern jumping ship to Sirius (even today, rumors are he's leaving early)but was it his first choice?
I just happened to be cruising by the boardroom at XM when I overheard a call on the speakerphone from one of Stern's gophers...
He said Howard wanted to go to XM, becuase they were the big guys and Stern has a HUGE ego.
He did not want to do a deal with the underdog, Sirius.
The wheels started rolling and the deal was virtually done with XM.
Then a fly in the ointment was found.
After the news broke that HS signed with Sirius, I found out that the XM deal fell apart when the head of GM (on their board of directors) said they would only allow the deal, if Howard would only be allowed on a 'Premium' XM station, so ten year old girls wouldn't accidentally be tuning in.
When Howard heard that he told them to (In the words of Teresa Heinz-Kerry) to 'shove it'.
Rumor is that Sirius also wanted to go the same route as well, but they are not set up for a premium channel system.
Thought your readers would be interested in these little tidbits.
Don Star